The Billionaire Darkness

Chapter Eighty-Nine

Olivia Thorne

I couldn't sleep. The argument that Demetri and I had was thankfully less severe than some of the other times. He'd hit me a couple of times, and it was only when it had stopped, that his voice had faded, that I'd come to realize he'd simply left me there standing a couple blocks from Williamsburg in an alley that he'd dragged me into. I couldn't even remember what the reason had been, I did know that I'd scratched his face in the attempt to push him away but that had only made him more angry.

I was lying here trying to think of all of it rationally but there was nothing that I could latch onto that was even slightly reasonable. I just needed out. It also wasn't the first time I'd laid in bed staring at the ceiling unsure of what I was supposed to do to escape from Demetri, and I wasn't at all sure how I could do it when there was still months left of school before summer. Then there was that Demetri had guns and his group of friends seemed to be equally as willing to be violent even if it was unnecessary.

Rolling to the edge of my bed I pushed myself towards the closet and glanced out of the small window I had at the sky high above dancing with specks of starlight, and a gentle fog that seemed to hover.

Taking a thick hoodie which I'd bought not long ago, I grabbed an equally as thick shirt, tucking it into the pair of lined leggings I'd grabbed since they were faux leather and the most likely to keep me warm, followed by the hoodie over top to keep me insulated. I then paced my room looking for the pocket knife I knew I had put somewhere, and probably forgot I'd tucked it away in a drawer. When I finally found it I slipped it onto my waistband and walked downstairs as silently as I could before sneaking out of the front door, shoes in hand.

Slipping my shoes on, I tucked my laces after tying them and began to make my way towards the one destination that I could think of as a good place.

The park across from Manhattan was empty like it was every night, during the day it wasn't busy, and it seemed abandoned now that the night's embrace had covered it. My footsteps barely seemed to make any sound as I walked past the trees their leaves turned to shadows, and the pale moonlight casting shadows as they moved veiling the surrounding area in the layers of fog that seemed to thin and then thicken as it wafted over the river.

When I found the bench across from Manhattan, the shining lights shining as if to comfort me with their distant glow. One day maybe I'd get to be on the other side of the river looking back at where I was now, but it seemed like a complete impossibility considering the circumstances I found myself unable to leave now. Every one I was needing to be closed to either couldn't help, or I couldn't tell because I feared for their safety.

"Help me," I mutter into the air to absolutely no one in particular, and even if there was someone my voice was too quiet to hear.

I was pleading with nothing, I'm fucking losing it.

I found myself thinking back to what seemed like the only good thing that had happened in months. To when I'd gone to the October Gala just to see what it was, just to find out what it was like on the nights in Manhattan and instead found the only person who made me forget that I'd been harmed, that I was being defiant, that I felt like I had to protect myself all the time—and I didn't even know his name.

The park fell silent again, the sound of the leaves gentle rustling drowning out my thoughts, replacing it with a sense of calm I wasn't expecting to feel so late at night. The serenity of it remained for a long moment before I heard a purposeful tap of someone's shoe on the sidewalk making me tense for just a second before remembering that if anything was to happen I could defend myself.

Lifting my head I saw him there walking through the park wrapped in shadows as he pulled his hood higher over his face, the dark coat around him making me mentally cross out the possibility that he was homeless or for some reason that he'd hurt me.